Quentin Tarantino slams Selma and black film critics

The Django Unchained filmmaker claimed that Selma was more like a low-budget TV film rather than a Hollywood movie

15/10/2015 10:14 AM

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THROWING SHADE: Quentin Tarantino (left) seemed to diss Ava DuVernay and her acclaimed film Selma during a recent interview

KILL BILL director Quentin Tarantino recently fired shots at Ava DuVernays’ civil-rights film Selma, claiming it was more like a made-for television film.

During a New York Times interview, the Django Unchained filmmaker said: "She did a really good job on Selma but Selma deserved an Emmy,” panning the film as a low budget TV movie.

Tarantino issued a clarification after he caught backlash for the negative comments about DuVernay.

In an email to IndieWire, the director now claims he has never actually seen Selma, and that when he said it, he meant it “more like a question.”

"I’m writing you to pass on that the quote from the NY Times piece about Selma is wrong. I never saw Selma. If you look at the article, it was Bret who was talking about Selma, not me. I did say the line 'it deserved a Emmy,' but when I said it, it was more like a question."

He continued: "Which basically meant, 'it’s like a TV movie?' Which Bret and myself being from the same TV generation, was not only understood, but there was no slam intended.

"Both Bret and myself come from the seventies and eighties when there were a lot of historically based TV movies: the King mini-series written by Abby Mann staring Paul Winfield; Crisis at Central High with Joanne Woodward. And Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys. These were great TV movies. I’d be honoured to be placed next to those films.

"However, I haven’t seen it. Does it look like a seventies TV movie? Yes. Does it play like one, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it," he concluded.

Tarantino also fired back at black critics who called him about for directing the slave flick and his flagrant use of the N-word in the script.

According to Vulture, Tarantino said: "When the black critics came out with savage think pieces about Django Unchained, I couldn’t have cared less.

"If people don’t like my movies, they don’t like my movies, and if they don’t get it, it doesn’t matter."

He continued: "The bad taste that was left in my mouth had to do with this: It’s been a long time since the subject of a writer’s skin was mentioned as often as mine. You wouldn’t think the colour of a writer’s skin should have any effect on the words themselves.

"In a lot of the more ugly pieces my motives were really brought to bear in the most negative way. It’s like I’m some supervillain coming up with this stuff."